Mid Week Words Of Wisdom...

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.  - William Faulkner

Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power. - Leonardo da Vinci

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others. - Winston Churchill

There is nothing which persevering effort and unceasing and diligent care cannot overcome. – Seneca

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. - Edward Gibbon

If you can't accept losing, you can't win. - Vince Lombardi

Counterintuitive Truth

The hardest decisions in life occur when we must choose between two good things:

Honesty or Loyalty?
Justice or Mercy?
Frugality or Generosity?

These often come into conflict, do they not?

If one could remove the vitriol from political debates, these are the six beautiful sisters we would see in a magnificent tug-of-war: Honesty, Justice and Frugality on one side ——– Loyalty, Mercy and Generosity on the other.

Let us hope neither side ever wins.

A person not doing anything is often exactly what they seem.
If you want to get something done, ask a busy person.

Rick Sorenson, one of my partners, tells of the day he decided to plunge headlong into the riptide of life. His moment of truth arrived when he saw himself dead and buried. On the tombstone six feet above him appeared these tragic words: He Had Potential.

Sorenson read those words and immediately leaped into the churning sea of life.

Do the storms ever cease on that sea?

A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are for.”
– John A. Shedd

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
– Mark Twain

You are busy because you do things.
You are getting things done.
You are having Mark Twain’s adventure.

You are not torn between two beautiful things.
You are torn between three: Work and Rest and Play.
Which of these three have you sat in the corner with her face turned to the wall?
Why have you chosen just two of these when all three are required for happiness?

I have given you many things to think about today.

I will think about them, too.

Roy H. Williams

Never stop because you are afraid - you are never so likely to be wrong.”  - Fridtjof Nansen

“ Excellence is the gradual result of always wanting to do better.” - Pat Riley

“ Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”  - Helen Keller

“ For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out.” -Theodore Roosevelt

The man of wisdom is never of two minds; the man of benevolence never worries; the man of courage is never afraid. - Confucius

Everything that happens to us leaves some trace behind; everything contributes imperceptibly to make us what we are. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“ The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.”

Thomas Henry Huxley

Roy H Williams is Great

“Happiness is a choice.”

Unhappy people get angry when I say “Happiness is a choice” because most of them have happily assigned their unhappiness to their circumstances, or their past, or an evil someone somewhere. It irritates them when I suggest they can simply choose to be happy.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but it can definitely be done.

Now let’s talk about you.

How often have you said, “I’ll be happy when…”
But then the desired circumstance arrives and it doesn’t bring real happiness.

Psychologist Shawn Achor says we tell ourselves,

If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier.”

“The problem with this is that it’s scientifically broken and backwards for two reasons. First, every time your brain has a success, you change the goalpost of what success looks like.
You got good grades, now you have to get better grades.
You got into a good school, now you have to get into a better school.
You got a good job, now you have to get a better job.
You hit your sales target, we’re going to change your sales target.
If happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. What we’ve done is we’ve pushed happiness over the cognitive horizon as a society.”

“But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order. If you can raise your level of positivity in the present… your intelligence rises, your creativity rises, your energy levels rise. In fact, what we’ve found is that every single business outcome improves. Your brain at positive is 31 percent more productive than your brain at negative, neutral or stressed. You’re 37 percent better at sales. Doctors are 19 percent faster and more accurate at coming up with the correct diagnosis when positive instead of negative, neutral or stressed. If we can find a way of becoming positive in the present, then our brains work even more successfully, as we’re able to work harder, faster and more intelligently.”

I said, “Happiness is a choice,” an act of your will.

Will you let me prove that?  We’ll need only a few minutes a day for 21 days.

Here’s what I need you to do:

1.    Write down three new things you’re grateful for each day.
Three new things a day, seven days a week.

According to Shawn Achor, as you approach the end of those 21 days your brain will start scanning the world, not for the negative, but for the positive first. Make this a habit and your happiness level will rise. Guaranteed.

2.    Each day, send an email to a friend describing something good that happened to you in the past 24 hours. It can be anything. Sharing it with a friend allows you to relive that moment.

You do realize that we’re re-training your brain, don’t you? All it takes is an act of your will. It will be awkward at first, but it will get easier. Stick with it.

3.    Send an email to someone – anyone – telling them what you like best about them, how they’ve inspired you, or taught you something valuable. Let that person know they’re important to you. Pick a different person each day.

One last thing. None of those emails can be sent to me.

Will you give it 21 days?

I’m going to go write down 3 things for which I am grateful and then I’m going to send 2 emails.

What are you going to do?

Roy H. Williams